Welcome back to the start of the 2019-2020 school year! By now I’m sure all of the school supplies have been purchased, new routines are on the way if not already established, and kids are still getting adjusted to waking up earlier than they have in months J  Back to work myself,I find myself trying to adjust to gaining structure back into my day. So while we’re all fine-tuning our schedules, I thought for my first post of the season I’d include a couple of tips that may help establish healthy structural habits.  Consider the following:

1. Each night, have your children pack their backpacks for the next day and put them next to the door they exit the house from. They should also gather and place in this spot any additional bags/sporting equipment/class projects they’ll need at this time as well. By doing this consistently each night, when stress is low, the “morning rush” to remember and gather what they need will become non-existent. Also to vanish will be your child’s call from school asking you to bring them something they forgot.
2. Insist your child leaves their phone in a separate room from where they do their homework. It’s too tempting for kids to “quickly reply” to a text or to “snap” a selfie doing their HW. One way to entice kids to comply with this is to charge their phones – when their HW is done, they’ll have a charged phone to communicate with their friends.

Keep checking in for more strategies and ideas!